Umbrella drip attachment



July 10, 1956 z. GARCIA UMBRELLA DRIP ATTACHMENT Filed March 22, 1954IN1/EN TOR.

Z giga/ Wj United States Patent O UMBRELLA DRIP ATTACHMENT Zeid Garcia,New York, N. Y.

Application March 22, 1954, Serial No. 417,786

2 Claims. (Cl. 13S-48) This invention relates to umbrellas, and the mainobject is the provision of an improved and practical drip catchattachment for a folded wet umbrella. It is a common nuisance, in cominginto a house or apartment with a folded soaking umbrella, to have itdrip over the floor or carpet while it is being carried into thebathroom or to an umbrella stand. The attachment of this inventionserves to catch the drip from the umbrella and thus prevent i-t fromfalling to the floor.

Another object of the invention is the provision of such an attachmentin a fashion so that it may be used on both mens and womens umbrellas,as well as on umbrellas having either relatively stout wooden stems andthose having relatively thinner metal stems. The drip catch of thisinvention is readily installable by the consumer on either form of stem.

The present attachment is moreover unobjectionable in appearance and issimple in construction and easy for anybody to attach.

The drip attachment is made of any suitable material, but preferably ofa somewhat flexible plastic composition, and i-t may be provided in anysuitable color or colors.

The above as well as additional and more specic objects will beclarified in the following description, wherein characters of referencerefer to like-numbered parts in the accompanying drawing. It is to benoted that the drawing is intended solely for the purpose ofillustration and that it is therefore neither desired nor intended tolimit the invention necessarily to any or all of the exact details ofconstruction shown except insofar as they may be deemed essential to theinvention.

Referring briefly to the drawing.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a folded umbrella provided with theattachment presented by this invention, for thin stems.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the attachment per se.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view of the umbrella and attachment of Fig. 1,with the latter shown as a section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3, showing the attachment applied to arelatively stout wooden umbrella stem.

Referring in detail to the drawing, the numeral indicates a common menstype of umbrella having a metal rod, stick or stem 11, which is usuallyrelatively small in diameter. An umbrella, usually a womans, having arelatively stouter stem 13 commonly made of wood, is shown at 12.

The attachment embodied in the present invention comprises anessentially conical or funnel-shaped container or body 14 enclosing thespace or compartment 15 within the conical wall 16. An axial opening 17is provided through the bottom of the body 14, or, more specifically afloor 18 having the opening 17 therethrough, is provided at the narrowor lower end of the body. This iioor is relatively thick, and the hole17 has a diameter approximately that 2,753,880 Patented July 10, 1956ICC of the thick stem 13. As the body 14 is made of a somewhat elasticplastic material, and as the hole 17 is preferably very slightly smallerthan the diameter of the stem 13, it is apparent that the stem 13 may beforced through the hole into the position shown in Fig. 5 by working thebody up frictionally. Owing to the relatively thick iloor 18, arelatively large surface area of contact between the stem and the wallaround the hole 17 is attained, thus assuring a firm securement of thebody 14 in place.

The same body 14 is applied to a thin metallic umbrella stem, as shownin Fig. 3, with the additional small attachment in the form of a plug 19made of the same elastic plastic material. The plug comprises a sleeve20 having a head or ange Z1. An axial opening or passage 22 through thesleeve and flange of the plug is approximately of the same diameter asthe stem 11, and the external diameter of the sleeve is approximatelythat of the hole 17. The ilange or head 21 of the plug has a conicalcircumferential edge 23 lying in the continuation of the conical surfaceof the body 14.

Since the body 14 has the ila-t lower end shown and represented by thethickened oor or bottom 18, it is better termed frusto-conical ratherthan conical, although by lowering the level of the bottom surface ofthe oor 18 to nearly the apex of the cone of which the body 14 may beconsidered a frustum, the body would be more nearly conical.

The attachment 14 is applied Ito the stem 11 of Figs. l and 3 (whereinthe hole 17 is larger than the diameter of the stem) by iitting the plug19 against the lower end of the body with the sleeve 20 registering inthe hole 17, and passing the stem through the hole 22 in the sleeve.Thus, the same receptacle 14 is provided on the thin metallic stem as onthe thick wooden stem, with the mere addition of the small ller plug.

In use, the drip from the soaking folded umbrella, when the latter isheld or otherwise positioned approximately vertically, passes into thecompartment 15, the floor of which, owing to the tight elastic iit ofthe plastic material of the iloor 18 or of the floor 18 and the plugsleeve 20, is watertight. The body 14 is preferably made small andrelatively narrow even at the top, since the compartment 15 is intendedto hold only a small amount of water, for example, the maximum amountwhich might drip from the umbrella in walking through a room orapartment.

Obviously, modifications in form or structure may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the invention.

I claim:

l. In combination with the stem of an umbrella, a drip catch attachmentcomprising a frusto-conical hollow body open at the wider top endthereof and having a wall closing the narrower bottom end thereof, saidbody and wall being formed of a somewhat elastic material, said wallhaving an axial opening therethrough and having a thicknesssubstantially greater than the thickness of the frusto-conical wallforming said body, the opposed surfaces of said bottom end wall beingparallel and at right angles to the axis of said opening, said wallopening having a diameter substantially greater than the diameter ofsaid stem, and a plug comprising a sleeve having an external diametersubstantially equal to the diameter of said wall opening and acylindrical head on the lower end thereof forming a shoulder at rightangles to the axis of the sleeve, said plug having an axial passagethrough said sleeve and head of a diameter substantially equal to thedimeter of said stem, said sleeve registering frictionally in said wallopening with said shoulder positioned adjacent the bottom surface ofsaid bottom end wall, said stem passing through said plug opening andregistering frictionally therein.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1, said head having atdiametersubstantially equal to the diameter of the bottom surfacefof said bottom-end .Wall of the body. 5 1 110215 1,63396l 2,301,380

References Cited in the ile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS BeachJuly 2, 1889 Witaker Feb. 27, 1894 Madonna Sept. 8, 1914 Sweeting June28, 1927 De Lamaterk Nov. 10, 1942

